We are 6 weeks old now!

Day 41 - June 30, 2007

All 3 kitten diaries are extremely short today with no photos at all. The reason for this is that at 2:30am one of our ladies was rushed to the vets for an emergency C-Section. It has been an extremely long night, with no sleep and it has been a very long day.

Our poor Capitals can not understand why mummy has barely cuddled them or picked them up today and even our chats have been incredibly brief. It is impossible to explain to children of this age that mummy is tired and has too much to do so what I've tried to do is make sure that the interaction I have had with the kids today, whilst minimal, has been "quality" time. So long as we have that, and so long as they are fed on time, then I think they will survive without the normal attention I give them. It is only for one day really after all. Dublin found it the hardest, she is a mummy's girl, and on more than one occasion the poor darling has come downstairs to try and find me.

Day 40 - June 29, 2007

Late yesterday afternoon, I arrived back from Tesco, came through the door, and the first thing I noticed (and heard) was the Capitals, all sitting on the bottom step, all looking at me and next thing I knew, they were screaming at me and the conversation went something like this:

Capitals: "Let us out mum?"
Me: "Not on your life! Do you know how old you are?????????????????"
Capitals: "Can we come down there?"
Me: "Not on your life! Do you know how old you are?????????????????"
Capitals: "C' mon mum, we want to play where you are"
Me: "Which part of the word 'No" don't you understand?"
Capitals: "Please will you open the door?"
Me: "Not until next week my little darlings."
Capitals: "LET US OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Me: "Don't you raise your voices to me!"
Capitals: "Open the door you evil eyed codfish" (they learnt that one from Graham!)
Me: "You vile, vile, little children. Right, if you reckon you're big enough to face the monsters, then be my guest, but don't come crying to me when you get lost or when someone eats you!!! "
Capitals: "Oooooooooooh mum, what's that big blue thing?"
Me: "That is Sage, get over it."

One look at their little faces and I knew I just had to let them out to explore the big wide world called "downstairs". I hastily dumped all the shopping in the kitchen, I then opened the little kitten door, and much to the Capital's surprise, they suddenly had no barrier keeping them upstairs. The look on their tiny little faces was priceless and it took no longer than 1 minute and all 5 Capitals, as well as some of our older babies, were off the stairs and running up and down the hallway and in and out of the back room. I had to laugh, they are such very, very, tiny little beings, especially when compared to someone like Sage or Ashanti, and to see them frolicking around, having the time of their life, and not caring at all about the adult cats. At this point I must add that the only adult cats who were really that interested in the babies were Ice, Ashanti, Sage, Parsley, and Tia Lusso. The rest of them could not really be bothered. They are all so used to seeing babies appear as if from nowhere and invade their space. And we're so proud of our "grown up" boys because all of them were so gentle with the babies. Ice followed them around with a lovesick look in his eyes, eagerly grooming every Capital that he could find, not letting them out of his sight. Ashanti also wanted to groom them, and smell them, although in all honesty, he was only checking them out to see if any of them were of "bonkable" status <sigh>. Such brave, fearless little children our Capitals were, even when Tuaca told one off Canberra (he was then put in Graham's room and is in disgrace for daring to growl at one of the Capitals), she just walked away and didn't care. It was a toss up though as to who was watching them more closely, myself or Drambuie. Buie sat on the floor, with her eyes on every single baby, I stood up in the doorway doing exactly the same thing. We were both just waiting for the first baby to encounter trouble, or for and adult to tell them off and it would have been interesting to see who would have reached the babies first, Drambuie or myself. The protective instinct for such tiny little children is so incredibly strong, and quite often, wasted, as in this case because the babies did not want Buie or myself following them around and making sure they were okay, they just wanted to get on with it. So I let them roam about for about an hour, then they all decided that they were oh so very tired and it was nap time, so one by one, they took themselves back up the stairs to bed and I closed the door behind them. Fifteen minutes later, Port-Of-Spain, Dublin, and Canberra, decided they weren't sleep after all, so I got up and opened the door up again, so they could come back out and play.

Day 39 - June 28, 2007

Out of all the Capitals, it is London and Dublin, who are still most dependant on their mum. I don't know if this is because they are the smallest 2 girls in the litter, or what the reason is. The other 3 babies are all happy to eat from the trays, just like the rest of the grown up kids, and if one of the mum's isn't sleeping with them, they will just wander back to the tray for some more food. Dublin and London will actually follow the mum's around hanging on to a nipple, and if there is no mum nearby, they will actively seek one out so they can have a feed. That's not to say that they don't eat the solid food, because they have very good appetites and will eat absolutely anything, even my cooking! They are all such little darlings and I am hoping that the time between now and August when they leave us will pass by very slowly.

Day 38 - June 27, 2007

Do you ever wake up some mornings and just know that it's going to be one of those days? Well, that's me today. Sambuca is screaming like a banshee in full call, Dublin flat out refused to eat breakfast, and during the evening, Drambuie keeps opening the kitten room door to let everyone out of the room! One of our ladies isn't due for about 2 weeks and she is the size of a horse, another lady due in a few days' time is refusing to use her kitten box, and Ashanti sprayed IN one of the flippin' water bowls. If I wasn't a cat breeder I would go back to bed let me tell you!

Washington had a very special day today because his mummy, Diana came to visit him so he got lots of cuddles with his new mum and I'm sure Diana will agree that her little man has certainly grown quite a bit since her last visit. It was really lovely to see Diana again. Having Diana in the house, is exactly like having another "me". What I mean by that is Diana talks to, and treats the cats/kittens in exactly the same way I do and I have to laugh when she told Sambuca to shut up (Sami didn't stop screaming!) the same way I would, and Sami paid as much attention to Diana as she did to me :) I was really pleased to see that Washington allowed his new mum to have cuddles with him and at long last he has stopping being "Whingey Boy" and has actually learnt that there really is no need at all to open his mouth and scream out every time he takes a few steps forward, (or backwards, depending on where he's trying to go). He will be a talkative boy though, no doubt about it. He showed his mum what a big boy he is now by using the litter tray without any problems at all. We really did have a wonderful visit, even though only half the babies wanted to play and it did take some persuading to wake them up at first but once some of them were awake, they were happy to play. Port-of-Spain has a brand new friend now called "Diana" and attached herself to Washington's new mum at every opportunity. Our Capitals are such happy little souls, not bothered at all by anything in life, and so long as they have their mum's, full food trays, each other, and sometimes me, they they are content with life.

Day 37 - June 26, 2007

All 3 kitten diary entries are the same today with no photos. I couldn't do any diaries today as we had something rather "special" to do today which involved a long journey meaning that we were out all day. All I will say is that we had a wonderful time and all will be revealed soon enough ;) Prior to leaving the home this morning, the babies had been fed 2 meals, the 2nd meal remained left down for them, and obviously they had copious amounts of kitten biscuits and fresh water. The door to their room was left open so that they would have plenty of room to run around because at this age they can not be confined to one room, apart from when it is "bed time". Upon our arrival home, the first thing I did was dump our stuff in the kitchen, prepare a tray of food and went upstairs with it. I was fully expecting to see all of our babies come running to me like they usually do if they haven't seen me for at least an hour. To say I was disappointed was an understatement when I was halfway up the stairs and there wasn't a baby in sight. The reason for this however, became very apparent! Drambuie is the bane of our existence I tell you! She had only helped herself and the babies into our bedroom. We had made sure the door was shut prior to leaving the home, but I don't know why we bothered really because when I got to the top of the stairs, I saw our bedroom door open, and the babies tearing around like little hooligans in there <sigh> It's not that we mind them being in the bedroom, the problem is that if they don't want to come out, it can be a nightmare trying to find them. So I started removing all the babies, got to about 6 babies, stopped did a head count, yes definitely 6, went back in the bedroom, found 2 more, took them out, went back in, found another 1, took that one out, did a head count, thought I counted 10 babies. But to make sure, I then counted that we had: 2 Siamese, 3 Black Torties, and 5 Blacks, nope, I couldn't count right the first time, I was missing a Black Tortie. And of course it had to be Dublin. It took me a full 40 minutes to find the little minx. She refused to come when called, I must have lay on my stomach peering under the bed for a good 15 minutes. I pulled absolutely everything out of the wardrobe, still couldn't see her, came downstairs to tell Graham someone had nicked one of the kids, went back upstairs, back in the bedroom, and as a last resort, I opened the wardrobe door again, but this time I reached in under the unit that the TV sits on and sure enough, there she was, perfectly comfortable, not a care in the world, and most indignant that mummy had removed her. This only confirms that Dublin's registered name couldn't be more fitting!

Day 36 - June 25, 2007

Our Capitals were more than happy to play games and run around while I took photos of them today. The older they get, the more active they are becoming and the more mischievous they are becoming. But honestly, it doesn't matter if they are slightly naughty because these babies are just so incredibly adorable that they can be forgiven anything. I think what I love most about our Capitals is the way that they come running to see me and how they want to be with me which always makes me feel good. Yes there are times when it can be a tad irritating, like this morning right, I'm hoovering the kitten room as I do every morning, and while I'm trying to hoover, Dublin is right up beside the hose and the hoover, doing everything possible to get in the way to stop me hoovering. It didn't matter that this great big mechanical monster had the capacity to suck her up very easily, she carried on getting in the way. After I had hoovered, I got out the Vanish Foam carpet stuff to clean up a mess on the carpet, and even that didn't deter her from leaving me alone so while I have a carpet full of foam, darling Dublin is trying to walk through it. She wasn't the only one though! The one thing about the Oriental breed that I adore is the fact that they are such "in your face" cats and let me assure you, the Capitals are certainly "in your face", "in the way", "in everything". I wouldn't have them any other way :)